Hacker News Reader

Comment by mk67 | Hacker News Reader

Damn, that sounds insane. Is the UK the only country in the world with this? What is the reason?

As mentioned elsewhere, the UK does _not_ have this, but there are libel systems, generally old-fashioned ones, where truth is not an absolute defence (a couple of US states still have criminal libel laws where truth may not be an absolute defence, though use of these presumably wouldn’t be constitutional, say).

i.e. Japan where even if something is true there needs to be an actual public interest in my publishing of it.

[1] > Under Article 230-1 of the Criminal Code of Japan:

> “(1) A person who defames another by alleging facts in public shall, regardless of whether such facts are true or false, be punished by imprisonment with or without work for not more than three (3) years or a fine of not more than 500,000 yen.”

Personally I like the UK model where the speaker is on the hook for knowing what they say is true. It shouldn't be too much to ask people to avoid making an unfounded claim ...

[1]: https://kellywarnerlaw.com/japan-defamation-laws

Italy has criminal libel laws where truth is not an absolute defence. It is routinely used to silence journalists. There is for example currently an high profile case involving Roberto Saviano being sued by the Italian PM.

There have been multiple calls to reform it as the law obviously does not conform to European and International standards, but I believe the reforms haven't gone anywhere yet.

Sweden, and to prevent character assassination. For example, back when that was taboo, by revealing that someone was homosexual.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com